Wounded suspect in officers' slaying on the run

Authorities say man getting help from family to evade capture

Updated 10:00 pm, Sunday, November 29, 2009

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Trudie Overby, left, and her mother, Lee Stanley, watch events unfold on Sunday near the scene where four Lakewood Police officers were killed as they sat in a coffee shop near McChord Air Force Base. The women live in an apartment building next to the scene. | Photo gallery less

Trudie Overby, left, and her mother, Lee Stanley, watch events unfold on Sunday near the scene where four Lakewood Police officers were killed as they sat in a coffee shop near McChord Air Force Base. The women ... more

Photo: Joshua Trujillo/seattlepi.com

Wounded suspect in officers' slaying on the run

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Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer says authorities believe Maurice Clemmons, the man sought in the slaying of four Lakewood police officers, is still alive and has been aided by a network of friends and family.

Troyer said Monday night that police have questioned several people who had provided assistance to Clemmons since the Sunday morning shootings, but investigators now think Clemmons is on his own.

Police in Renton on Monday evening surrounded a home in the 13000 block of Renton Avenue South believed to associated with Clemmons. Troyer said no one was arrested but police continue to talk to people close to Clemmons. He declined to provide further details.

Troyer also said some of those who have helped Clemmons have tried to mislead police.

They are reportedly no longer looking for a 1997 Mazda Millennia associated with Clemmons' ex-wife. According to KIRO, the State Patrol says the car was sold two months ago.

Officers have checked out tips for more than 24 hours from witnesses on two ferry runs who thought they saw Clemmons on board, State Patrol Trooper Cliff Pratt said.

"We have officers on alert at every exit route out of Washington and through the mountain passes," he said.

Police have been chasing numerous tips on Clemmons whereabouts, from the University District to Beacon Hill to Cowen Park to a home in Pacific. Troopers and King County sheriff's deputies also paid close attention to Snoqualmie Pass after getting tips from truckers in the area about a person trying to hitch a ride.

Troopers were unable to find any pedestrians along the freeway or anyone matching Clemmons' description, he said.

Early Monday police said Clemmons was not in a home in Seattle's Leschi neighborhood that heavily armed officers surrounded throughout the night.

"We just don't know," Detective Jeff Kappel told reporters Monday morning. "We don't know if he was in the area when SWAT arrived. We don't know if he is still in the area."

Another police spokesman said officers were responding to citizen reports and searching areas after being told someone matching the description of suspect Maurice Clemmons' description might be there.

The University of Washington sent out an e-mail alert to students and staff, saying that Clemmons might be in the U District. But UW police found a man and searched him in a classroom, but he wasn't the suspect.

UW police had received an unconfirmed report that a man matching the suspect's decision was seen getting off a bus on Campus Parkway.

The News Tribune of Tacoma quoted Troyer as saying a search of the Leschi home turned up a weapon but not Clemmons.

"We want the suspect in custody as much as anyone," Kappel said. "We will continue to search the area."

"If he is hiding, he has been hiding for 11 hours or more."

Police with dogs searched the neighborhood this morning. Nearby Leschi Elementary School is closed.

In Beacon Hill, where police have also been searching, Beacon Hill Elementary enacted a "shelter-in-place" lockdown as a precaution. It ended about 11:10 a.m.

Kappel said worried residents can ask police to search their home. Parents of schoolchildren can rest assured Seattle Public Schools is working closely with the police department to keep kids safe during the search, said spokesman David Tucker.

"Our security folks are very much aware and alert to the situation," Tucker said. "We're working very closely with SPD. In any situation where we need to heighten our security stance, we're definitely going to react on the advisement of SPD.

A murder warrant has been issued for Clemmons.

Troyer said Clemmons was shot and wounded in a Lakewood coffee shop where the officers were killed.

Clemmons - a man with an extensive criminal history in Washington and Arkansas - was the suspect in the Sunday morning shootings of four Lakewood Police officers, who were gunned down as they worked on their laptops, Troyer said.

About an hour before Troyer's early Monday briefing observers believed tear gas was shot into a structure by a Leschi home, which was described as a trailer. Police set up a command center hours earlier near the home in the 3800 block of East Superior Court, just blocks from where a Seattle police officer was shot and killed last month.

Police believe Clemmons was taken to the Seattle home after the officers were shot. Troyer said the people who helped Clemmons have been detained.

Kappel said Seattle police got a tip at 8:44 p.m. that Clemmons had been dropped off at the Leschi home. Officers flooded the area, and SWAT officers responded.

Police searched nearby buildings and tried to get Clemmons out.

They set off flash-bang grenades and other noisemakers. They used chemical irritants on the house and used a robot to search it.

Nearby residents were warned to lock their doors and stay in their homes.

After midnight police were using loudspeakers, airhorns and sirens to try to communicate with Clemmons, urging him to call 911. "You need to let me know you're listening to me...I understand you may need some medical help," the police negotiator said. "I'd like to minimilize what you did today but I'm not sure I can do that."

Resident Bo Peck was stuck outside the police perimeter Sunday night. He said his family just moved into their Leschi home and that his wife and 20-year-old daughter were in the home, behind the police perimeter. "It's really nerve-wracking. My daughter's scared to death," Peck said.

SWAT officers entered it just before 7 a.m. Kappel said it wasn't clear that Clemmons was ever inside the house but that there was evidence that he had at least been outside it.

'An execution'

On Sunday Troyer described the officers' slayings as "an execution...As cold-hearted as it is, that's exactly what happened."

Clemmons

Clemmons is 5-foot-8, 235 pounds with black hair, brown eyes and a mole on his left cheek. Police considered him armed and dangerous and were searching a home late Sunday night that he may be connected to.

Troyer said Clemmons has an extensive violent criminal history from Arkansas, including aggravated robbery and theft.

Nine years ago he was serving a 35-year prison term in Arkansas for armed robbery but his sentence was commuted by then-Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Recently he was charged in Pierce County for third-degree assault on a police officer and rape of a child. Clemmons' aunt, in Little Rock, Ark., declined to comment or even give her name. She said her mother -- who is Clemmons' grandmother -- had numerous calls from reporters on Sunday "and it was very upsetting to her."

Pierce County records show Clemmons is facing the child rape charges in a May 10 incident. In a separate case, Clemmons and two other men have been charged with two counts of third-degree assault and multiple counts of malicious mischief, or destruction of property.

Clemmons posted a bail on Nov. 23 after paying $15,000 to secure a $150,000 bail bond, according to court documents. That bond was posted more than two weeks after Pierce County prosecutors told Clemmons and the court they intended to seek a life sentence against Clemmons under the state "Three-strikes" law. Court records show Clemmons spent much of 2009 as a fugitive, avoiding jail until an arrest in July.

According to court filings related to a child rape charge , Clemmons' family had noticed increasingly bizarre behavior from the man in days before the alleged rape on May 10.

That night, a woman acquainted with Clemmons told police, Clemmons made his way into her then 12-year-old daughter's bedroom where he had sexual contact with the girl. Throughout the assault, the woman told police, Clemmons repeatedly told the girl he was Jesus.

"(The woman) reported that her husband, the defendant, has been acting 'crazy,'" a Pierce County deputy prosecutor told the court. "The defendant kept repeating that (the girl) she should trust him, the world is going to end soon and that he was Jesus."

Pierce County sheriff's deputies arrived at the home the following day but did not arrest Clemmons until July 1, when he arrived at Pierce County Superior Court to quash a warrant related to a separate case.

During the investigation into the alleged child rape, Clemmons told his sister he was being investigated by the U.S. Secret Service, according to charging documents.

"The defendant's sister reported that the defendant had not been himself lately," the deputy prosecutor said in court documents. "He had said that the Secret Service was coming to get him because he had written a letter to the president."

Court records also show that on Nov. 12 Clemmons was ordered evaluated at Western State Hospital. He was found competent to stand trial.

The morning before the alleged rape, Pierce County sheriff's deputies were called to the 13100 block of 12th Avenue South in Parkland after reports of a domestic disturbance.

One deputy arriving at the house just after midnight on May 9 confronted two men, identified in court documents as Eddie Lee Davis and Joseph Pitts. As the deputy moved to detain Davis, prosecutors allege Davis and Pitts began to struggle against the deputy.

As the fight continued, Clemmons stormed out of the house and punched the deputy in the face, prosecutors allege. All three men were detained after backup units arrived at the home.

Surveying the scene, investigators learned that Clemmons had been throwing rocks through car and home windows in the neighborhood. One elderly man was hit with a rock, according to police, suffering a deep cut to his head.

Clemmons' wife declined to cooperate with officers investigating the incident, which apparently began as a domestic dispute.

"(She) did tell deputies she and Clemmons argued over a newly discovered child and theorized that this argument precipitated the rampage," prosecutors said in court documents.

Arrested following the altercation, Clemmons posted bail the following day, according to police. Early the following morning, prosecutors allege, he raped the then-12-year-old daughter of an acquaintance.

Clemmons was immediately charged with third-degree assault and malicious mischief, but failed to come to court on May 12. He later posted $40,000 bail in the case after he was arrested on a bench warrant.

One of the slain officers was Sgt. Mark Renninger, who grew up in Bethlehem, Pa., and moved to Washington after his military service, according to WFMZ-TV in Pennsylvania. A Facebook page also was set up in his honor.

"Mark was a professional, dedicated police officer who made the ultimate sacrifice," his brother, Matt Renninger, said in a statement to the TV station. "More importantly, he was a loving and devoted father, husband and family member who will be missed by many."

Renninger is survived by his wife, two daughters and a son. He has four brothers and a sister, his brother told WFMZ.

Owens, 37, had 12 years of law enforcement experience. He is survived by a former wife and a daughter. Tina Griswold, 40, was a 14-year law enforcement experience and is survived by her husband and two children.

Richards, 42, had eight years of law enforcement experience and is survived by a wife and three children.

State Patrol Trooper Keith Leary worked with Owens in the Tri-Cities after their 1999 graduation from the State Patrol Training Academy in Shelton. Leary, speaking from the scene of a four-fatality collision Sunday in Snohomish County, said he learned of Owens' death on the news.

"He was an outstanding individual," Leary said. "He was a great guy and liked by everybody in my class."

Police impounded a white truck during their investigation, and police began looking at a person of interest early Sunday afternoon. Investigators were at multiple locations of interest -- though police have also been thrown bogus tips -- and were working to obtain search warrants for multiple locations.

Troyer said the gunman approached the coffee shop counter, and a barista fled out a back door when she saw his gun. He then turned on the officers.

Police believe the gunman might have been shot in the struggle with one of the slain officers, who battled him to the door the coffee shop before being fatally wounded, Troyer said.

Investigators believe if hit, the man would likely travel to a hospital outside Lakewood or tell someone he was accidentally shot.

The shop, Forza Coffee, is near McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, about 35 miles south of Seattle.

"As a retired police officer this senseless shooting hits extremely close to home to me," said Brad Carpenter, chief executive officer of Forza Coffee said in a statement. "These officers put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe.'

A $100,000 reward was announced Sunday afternoon for information leading to the shooter's arrest and conviction. Gov. Chris Gregoire said Sunday was one of the most tragic days in the state's history.

Police established two tip lines and asked people with information to call 253-591-5959 or 866-977-2362. Hundreds of tips poured in Sunday.

"We have somebody who has obviously shot four cops we don't know what kind of state of mind he's in and we don't want anyone else hurt," Troyer said Sunday afternoon, trying to deter people from approaching someone fitting the suspect description. "Let our guys do their jobs; it's still early in this."

Gregoire said in a statement she was shocked and horrified at the murder of four police officers this morning in Pierce County.

"Our police put their lives on the line every day, and tragedies like this remind us of the risks they continually take to keep our communities safe," she said.

No threats made

The fatal ambush came nearly a month after the fatal Halloween ambush of Seattle officer Tim Brenton, 39, who was killed while discussing a traffic stop near 29th Avenue and East Yesler Way. His partner, Britt Sweeney, was wounded when a .223 round tore through her bulletproof vest.

Troyer said there were no recent threats made against officers in Pierce County, and there was no connection between the Brenton case and the Lakewood police homicides.

"We don't know if it's related to the other shootings around the country," he said. "Chances are there's not going to be a good answer, not going to be an answer that makes any sense."

Four or five agencies were helping in the search for the suspect, Troyer said.

State Attorney General Rob McKenna told KOMO Radio he's offered criminal investigation resources of his office to the Pierce County Sheriff's Office, including a homicide investigation tracking system.

The suspect in the Brenton slaying, Christopher J. Monfort, 41, has been charged with aggravated first-degree murder, three counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count of arson. Prosecutors say he also rigged several bombs at a City of Seattle garage hoping to kill officers and firefighters and pointed a gun at two homicide detectives before he was shot and apprehended Nov. 6, as Brenton's memorial was ending.

The Lakewood Police Department is only five years old. It was formed in 2004. Prior to that the city contracted with the Pierce County Sheriff's office to provide police protection. There are slightly more than 100 commissioned officers, and the department's Web site says that 95 percent of the initial hires are still with the force.

Man connected to case described as 'nice'

People who lived near Clemmons in Pierce County described him as a nice man.

He "was always very decent, very nice, very generous," said across the street neighbor Kerstin Horning, 44. "He was always friendly and hard-working," working at both a pressure washing and a landscaping business, she said.

Horning celebrated July 4 at a party at Clemmons' house a few years ago. And when her son recently had a birthday, Clemmons gave him a card with some money in it as a gift.

Another neighbor said Clemmons' house was known for their "fantastic" holiday light displays. But then one day in May Clemmons was out on his driveway with some employees, "yelling at them, ranting, raving in their driveway," Horning said.

"In May when he went wacko, as I would probably describe it, and this all came out, it was kind of shocking, surprising," Horning said. "Up until then he was very normal."